Sirte - U.S. President Barack Obama is turning the page in the West's troubled relations with Sudan by taking a more constructive approach, a senior Sudanese official said on Thursday.

The International Criminal Court has indicted the Sudanese president for war crimes in the Darfur region and European officials say Khartoum is jeopardising a peace deal that ended a separate conflict between Sudan's north and south.

But Salman al-Wasilla, Sudan's State Minister for Foreign Affairs, told Reuters in an interview the Obama administration was showing a readiness to break with the past.

Obama this year appointed retired Air Force General Scott Gration, a close adviser, as his special envoy to Sudan and the United States last month hosted a conference of officials from Sudan's north and south to try to keep their peace deal on track.

Attacking Western policies on Sudan over the past few years, al-Wasilla said his oil producing country had complied with international demands over Darfur and ended fighting with the rebels in the south but has not been rewarded.